After her mom passes away, Drue Campbell finds herself in dire straits and in need of a job. Enter her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a renowned personal injury lawyer. You know the kind --- the one who has his face on billboards and buses and TV commercials, but the one, nonetheless, who you think of calling when you get rear-ended as you're sitting in your car at a red light and end up with whiplash and a backache. When Brice offers Drue a job as an intake associate at the firm with a healthy salary and benefits, Drue hesitantly accepts.

In addition to the job, Brice has the keys to an oceanfront cottage that belonged to Drue's maternal grandparents and is now all hers. Even though the roof is in a tarpaulin-covered state due to hurricane damage and the interior is covered in filth left behind by the last renter who lived there, one who just happened to be a hoarder, Drue is ecstatic to own the home where she spent the best summers of her life with Nonni and Papi, her Cuban grandparents.

"SUNSET BEACH is a rollicking fun read with a heroine who's easy to root for and enough mysteries, murder and mayhem to keep you turning the pages."

While some good things are happening in Drue's life, one negative is the fact that her father is now married to her BFF from eighth grade, Wendy Lockhart. Grown-up Wendy, unlike adolescent Wendy, is a self-important, bossy witch who enjoys making Drue's life a living hell. Unlike the pudgy, awkward Wendy of yesteryear, Wendy 2.0 is a slim, toned, stylish new model who never misses a chance to lord it over Drue that she is now her stepmother and the office manager of Brice's law firm.

Life at Campbell, Coxe, and Kramer is pretty humdrum for Drue until the day that Yvonne Howington shows up. She had hired Brice to represent her in the wrongful death suit of her daughter, which should have resulted in a large settlement, but, due to technicalities, left her with barely enough money on which to live. Something about this woman who lost her only child and is raising her granddaughter on a pittance tugs at Drue's heartstrings, and she becomes determined to investigate the case further to see what, if any, mistakes were made.

At the same time, she finds a decades-old file about a woman who went missing during Brice's days as a cop before he became a lawyer. Why is this file in the attic at the cottage, and what, if anything, did her father have to do with the case? Is her dad merely a good guy who's trying to rebuild his relationship with his daughter, or is he someone with a more sinister nature who is involved in nefarious dealings?

As Drue pursues these matters and settles into her new job, one more challenge arises --- working side by side with a hottie of a co-worker with whom she had a one-night stand the same day she met him. In spite of her best intentions, the attraction she feels for him is hard to fight. Is anything ever simple?

SUNSET BEACH is a rollicking fun read with a heroine who's easy to root for and enough mysteries, murder and mayhem to keep you turning the pages. The balmy setting of St. Petersburg is an added bonus that allows you to take an armchair vacation to a tropical atmosphere. Once again, Mary Kay Andrews has worked her magic to produce a tale that's sure to please.